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FALFURRIAS - Dozens of illegal immigrants have lost their lives in the brush of Brooks County. CHANNEL 5 NEWS learned it could take weeks, sometimes months, for bodies to be buried.

Many of the unidentified bodies found end up in a family mortuary in Mission. There, Dina Elizondo works with consulates and families to do what seems impossible -- identify the illegal immigrants.

"We search the clothes. We search the belt. We search the shoes. We search every part of the clothing and everything to find out if there was a number. Sometimes we even find cell phones and we charge them and we start calling everybody," she explained. "And we have people -- even people emailing us pictures of their loved ones... And they'll say, 'This is what she looked like... This is what she was wearing and this is her age' and things like that."

Since she started helping Brooks County a few years ago, Elizondo has identified all but a few bodies.

"We take pictures and we send them out to all of the consulates: Guatemala, El Salvador, the Mexican, Honduras... We have connections there with them," she told us.

Elizondo also contracts with Dr. Frank Salinas, who conducts autopsies at the funeral home.

"Keep trying and keep trying," said Elizondo. "That's what we do. That's all we can do...just keep trying."

The identification process sometimes takes weeks. Bodies wait in a cooler, while Elizondo works the phones.

"Oh my God, sometimes it can take about two to three months... depending. But we try not to let it go past a month. We try to hurry up as much as possible, you know, for the family's sake," she explained.

Brooks County taxpayers pay for the autopsies. Judges explain they only order autopsies on the illegal immigrants when they notice strange circumstances or when the victims are children. Most die from the heat or dehydration.

The county isn't charged for pickup fees or storage. If an autopsy isn't performed, the family mortuary doesn't get paid for the work.

Elizondo explains why they continue to do the work they do.

"Because we are human," she said. "And like I said, it's a brother. It's a sister. It's a son. It's a daughter. At the end of the day -- just to find out that we were able to find somebody for a person - that makes our day."

Elizondo shared the paperwork she keeps of the bodies brought to the mortuary. The names in the logs identify those who were identified and eventually returned to their families.

"To be able to know that I was able to send a father home... a mother home... a son, a daughter... It is to hear the voices of the mom or brothers thanking us... You do feel good. You do get the goose bumps," explained Elizondo. "It does make you feel good. It does."

Elizondo is proud of the fact she can provide closure to families who feared their loved ones might forever remain one of the unknowns.